Social Power and the Urbanization of Water

Flows of Power

Erik Swyngedouw

Description

Taking as his case-study the city of Guayaquil in Ecuador, where 600,000 people lack easy access to potable water, Erik Swyngedouw aims to reconstruct, theoretically and empirically, the political, social, and economic conduits through which water flows, and to identify how power relations infuse the metabolic transformation of water as it becomes urban. These flows of water which are simultaneously physical and social carry in their currents the embodiment of myriad social struggles and conflicts. The excavation of these flows narrates stories about the city's structure and development. Yet these flows also carry the potential for an improved, more just, and more equitable right to the city and its water. The flows of power that are captured by urban water circulation also suggest that the question of urban sustainability is not just about achieving sound ecological and environmental conditions, but first and foremost about a social struggle for access and control; a struggle not just for the right to water, but for the right to the city itself.

Social Power and the Urbanization of Water

Flows of Power

Erik Swyngedouw

Table of Contents

I: Flows of Power: Nature, Power, and the City 1: Hybrid Waters: On Water, Nature, and Society 2: The City in a Glass of Water: Circulating Water, Circulating Power 3: Water, Power, and the Andean City: Situating GuayaquilII: Social Power and the Urbanization of Water in Guayaquil, Ecuador 4: The Urban Conquest of Water in Guayaquil, 1880-1945: Cocoa and the Urban Water Dream 5: The Urban Conquest of Water in Guayaquil, 1945-2000: Bananas, Oil, and the Production of Water Scarcity 6: The Water Mandarins: The Contradictions of Urban Water Provision 7: The Water Lords: Speculators in Water 8: Contested Waters: Rituals of Resistance and Water ActivismIII: Conclusion 9: Whose Water and Whose City? Towards an Emancipatory Water Politics

Author Information

Social Power and the Urbanization of Water

Flows of Power

Erik Swyngedouw

Reviews and Awards

"'Providing deep insights into the complex urban natures, Swyngedouw makes an invaluable contribution to the study of water ecologies in their political economic context.' Roger Keil, Annals of the Association of American Geographers"

"an exemplary, memorable monograph, offering much of interest to all readers with interests in the political economy of uneven development." - Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy 2005